1950s Television Personality Puppets
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APPRAISER:
You told me you've been playing around with puppets for, like, 70 years?
GUEST:
Yeah, since I was a child. When I was a child, to see puppets was the greatest thing. And my mother visited her sister who lived in Vienna. So, I used to go to Vienna with her and she put me in to see this theater show, the“Punch and Judy.” I was so fascinated with “Punch and Judy.” I wanted to go every time. So every time she went to see her sister, she left me at the puppet show, “Punch and Judy” because she knew that's the place she'd find me. Later years, when I started with the WPA, I started to make little puppets, and they recognized that I could make bigger ones, too. So I started to make bigger puppets. I used to love to make celebrities.
APPRAISER:
These, obviously, you made in the early '50s.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
And what we have here is a window on 1950s television. You'd use these in nightclub acts and you played in Miami, you played in New York in the clubs.
GUEST:
Yes, yes, they love them. Yes.
APPRAISER:
Well, it's great we're here in Miami, that you came in and you brought some characters who ended up on television from Miami.
GUEST:
Yes, yes they did.
APPRAISER:
I mean, starting with the greatest, Jackie Gleason.
GUEST:
Gleason, yeah.
APPRAISER:
Ed Sullivan.
GUEST:
Ed Sullivan.
APPRAISER:
And Liberace.
GUEST:
Yes, well, I had the piano and his candelabra.
APPRAISER:
And Jack Paar, another great character.
GUEST:
And Jack Paar. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they all have mouth movements
APPRAISER:
Mouth working, and Jerry Lewis. There you are with Jerry Lewis.
GUEST:
Yeah, there's the picture.
APPRAISER:
And here's the schnozzola.
GUEST:
(laughing) Schnozzola, yeah, yeah, he's all right, eh? A-cha-cha-cha. A-cha-cha-cha.
APPRAISER:
Well, these are just fantastic.
(both laughing)
APPRAISER:
Oh, it's fabulous. What are these puppets made out of? They're sculpted, correct?
GUEST:
Well, these are made of plastic wood.
APPRAISER:
Well, they're great puppets, and 1950s, this is part of our history. Sculpturally they're fantastic.
GUEST:
Thank you, I appreciate that.
APPRAISER:
Not a lot of people collect puppets, but there are people who collect Jackie Gleason stuff. And there's people who collect nostalgic items from the '50s. So, it's a hard market to deduce. I think I would estimate these, as a group, conservatively, $10,000 to $15,000.
GUEST:
All of them?
APPRAISER:
All of them.
GUEST:
I've been offered for just Liberace, I've been offered $5,000.
APPRAISER:
Jackie Gleason, I think, is probably the most collectible here. But I really appreciate your bringing them by, because, you know, I love puppets.
GUEST:
It was a pleasure being with you.
APPRAISER:
Thank you.
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